McPherson, Kathryn M.York-Bertram, Sarah Elizabeth2024-10-282024-10-282024-02-282024-10-28https://hdl.handle.net/10315/42381This dissertation undertakes an affective reading of late-nineteenth and early-twentieth century Canadian primary sources through which to analyze the affective basis of judgments and narratives surrounding sexual commerce. Situated in the interdisciplinary subfield of the history of emotions, this dissertation centres sexual commerce as a site of colonial worldmaking in what are currently the southern regions of the provinces of Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta, and traces emotional through-lines across fields in social space. Beginning with a self-reflexive prologue drawing from a method feminist theorist Clare Hemmings (2011) terms “situated horror,” this dissertation then turns to the Dominion of Canada’s post-1867 westward expansion, its legal mechanisms, and affective mobilizations. Across the empire, Britain tied legislative powers to feelings that reflected its goals, ideal social order, and habitus of its peoples. Like a mathematical equation, peace in the colonies would emerge through order and good government and law-abiding citizens would be its beneficiaries. That equation was integral to the shift from a fur trade economy to a settler colonial one oriented toward a British imperial and Canadian economic disposition. The corollary effect of the equation was the normalization of British and Canadian views on what constituted peace, their conceptions of capital, and the conceptual transplant of disorderly figures, such as the “rebel,” the “vagrant,” and the “prostitute” – or, broadly, people defined as “outlaws.” Three main sites of colonial worldmaking are examined in this work: that of the journalistic field in chapter four, that of the political field in chapter five, and that of the juridical field in chapter six. By tracing emotion in oft-cited, and not-so-oft-cited, primary sources that discuss concerns about and responses to sexual commerce, the emotions underpinning narratives and judgments surrounding sexual commerce become evident. This method offers an emotions history of western Canadian colonial expansion, revealing how sex workers, histories of sex work, and feelings about sexual commerce were integral to Canadian worldmaking. Responses to sexual commerce were informed by the Dominion of Canada’s worldmaking mission, concerns over human unfreedom, and dynamic social positionings in emergent settler colonial society. British imperial and Canadian whiteness were produced through gendered-racialized processes of differentiation at the local, municipal, provincial, federal, and imperial levels. White men’s feelings of satisfaction dominated in this history, as they intensified their gendered monopoly on resources, space, and authority in a region that had been known as Indigenous peoples’ territories. This analysis of masculinized emotions contributes to the feminist theorization of colonialism and sexuality.Author owns copyright, except where explicitly noted. Please contact the author directly with licensing requests.Canadian historyGender studiesWomen's studiesElectronic Thesis or Dissertation2024-10-28Canadian historyPrairie historyWestern CanadaSex workSexual commerceSaskatchewanAlbertaManitobaSex work historyCanadaWinnipegSaskatoonEdmontonCalgaryReginaBlackfoot ConfederacyMacleodMedicine HatLethbridgeTreaty 1Treaty 4Treaty 6Treaty 7Indigenous historiesWestward expansionNineteenth centuryTwentieth centuryNorthwest TerritoriesNorth-westNorth-west TerritoriesHistory of emotionsEmotions historyEmotions researchWomen's and gender studiesWomen's studiesGender studiesMasculinitiesBritish imperialismWestern imperialismWestern feminismFeminist studiesIndigenous studiesIndigenous-settler relationsHistory of feminismRace relationsRaceRacismSettler colonialismSatisfactionLegal historyCanadian LawCanadian policySex work studiesCriminal lawThe Indian ActProstitutionWhite slaveryHuman traffickingWhite women's labourLawHistory of marriageHistory of divorceCanadian judgesNorth West Mounted PoliceRoyal Canadian Mounted Police(Royal) North West Mounted PoliceDepartment of Indian AffairsIndigenous marriageMarriageWhite menWhite womenWhitenessIndigenous womenIndigenous feminismMissing and murdered Indigenous womenIndigenous menBlack menBlack womenAsian menChinese-CanadianAnti-black sentimentAnti-Asian sentimentAnti-Indigenous sentimentPolicyEmotionsFeelingsAffectEmotionChristianityProtestantCatholicEvangelicalMoral reformFearHorrorShockDisgustFeminist theoryPierre BourdieuBourdieuBourdieusian methodsFeminist methodsClare HemmingsSituated horrorSituated knowledgeSocial orderProstituteSegregationInfrastructureEconomyPolitical economyAffective economiesSara AhmedDominion of CanadaHabitusEmotional habitusDeborah B. GouldRebelVagrantOutlawsRailroadCanadian Pacific Railway CompanyJournalismJournalistic fieldNewspapersPrimary sourcesPrivy CouncilSurveysCity councilTown councilMunicipal councilMunicipalitiesRegulationRegulation of prostitutionRegulation of sex workRegulation of sexual commerceProcesses of differentiationDifferentiationWorldmakingColonialColonial worldmakingGendered social orderFemininityAgencySocial spaceReasonGendered-racializationMethodsMethodologiesNarrativesTypical prostituteSexual exploitationSexual dangerSufferingSlaveryOutrageAnxietyCounter-narrativePolicingUndesirablesUndesirableShameSuspicionPityRegretEmotional expressionEmbodimentCognitive justiceJudith WalkowitzPall Mall GazetteW. T. SteadMaiden Tribute of Modern BabylonIndigenous territoryIndigenous territoriesPieganChief CrowfootFather Constantine ScollenR. B. Deane1885 Northwest Resistance UprisingFirst NationsMétisPiapot First NationStarvation policyKáínawa ReserveHouse of Commons debateIndian agentFarm instructorSection 238 of Canada's Criminal CodeCanada's Criminal CodeCriminal CodeProstitution lawIntersectionalIntersectionalityIntersectional researchIntersectional research methodsBiopoliticsNecropoliticsProtective legislationSexismSexistThe GlobeNewsEdmonton BulletinRegina LeaderEvangelical ChurchmanMoose Jaw NewsToronto MailMacleod GazetteManitoba SunCalgary HeraldCalgary TribuneSaskatchewan Labour RealmLethbridge HeraldThe AlbertanRed Deer NewsSaskatoon StarRaymond LeaderR. v Ford (1889)Re. Effie Brady (1913)R. v. Knowles (1913)Quong Wing v. The King (1914)R. v. Cardell (1914)R. V. Sands (1915)R. v. Davidson (1917)R. v. Cyr (1917)R. v. Bobyck (1919)R. v. Jones (1921)Samail v. Samil (1922)R. v. Flannery (1923)Jones v. Jones (1925)Sessional PapersViceVice Commission